2826.—Whatsoever Thy Soul Desireth.
By Editor
Please explain Deut. 14:26, “Thou shalt bestow the money for whatsoever thy soul desireth, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul ask thee. Thou shalt eat there before Jehovah thy God; thou shalt rejoice, thou and thy household.” R. J. B. We are sure that no candid reader would understand this text to mean that God’s children could go into all sorts of license regarding moral conduct, or indulging in all sorts of diet. In fact the first part of the fourteenth chapter forbids this. “Ye are the children of Jehovah your God.” “Thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God.” In the light of this they were to make discrimination between the clean and the unclean, and so were to come before the Lord for worship. Surely, we can not believe that their soul would desire, standing in the light of that text, anything that would be contrary to God and to His worship. That very thing is implied in all the context; but when they came up to that place which Jehovah had chosen, and when they went up there to obtain His blessing, they certainly would not choose, if they were truly acting in harmony with His word, anything that would drag them downward. It would be perfectly safe to tell a good Christian man, and place money in his hand in order that he might do it, to go to a certain city and eat whatsoever his soul desired in the worship of God. We may be sure that the Christian principles which he had would hold him from doing anything that was contrary to God and to His word; and so with Israel anciently when they were standing in the light. But when they departed from God, these gatherings which the Lord ordained were utterly neglected. There may have been those then who would take advantage of such expressions as “whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,” and would do all sorts of wickedness; just as there are professed Christians at the present time who will take advantage of such expressions. It is well to remember that there was no such wine or strong drink in those days as we have now. The ancients knew nothing of distilled liquors, and their strong drink anciently was a mild cordial compared with the fiery intoxicants of the present time.